These Were the Best Free Widget Games On The Web

A look back on some of the best free widget games you could play

By
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Writer
  • University of Texas at Arlington
Daniel Nations has been a tech journalist since 1994. His work has appeared in Computer Currents, The Examiner, and other publications. He is a developer who has published apps in the Apple App Store, Google Play marketplace and Amazon Appstore; he also has worked as a data analyst and DB administrator.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on December 19, 2019
An image graphic of a computer monitor.

 

Mykyta Dolmatov/Getty Images

There used to be a time where you would find miniature games in the footer or sidebars of all sorts of different blogs and sites across the web.

Free game widgets actually once helped to increase blog traffic by attracting new users and inviting regulars to stick around for a bit and play a few games. As you might have guessed, those days are now behind us.

Nowadays, bloggers and web designers focus more on responsive layouts that do away with all the clutter—and that includes widget games. Many blogs and sites have even cut out sidebars altogether, opting for a cleaner look that spans the full width of the web browser.

Despite the changing landscape of the web, it's always fun to look back on some of the older trends that have since passed us by. The following list features some of the best free widget games that used to be available on the web.

Do you have an Android device? Check out the 14 best free widgets for Android.

Donkey Kong

Arcade Game Widget
Image of Donkey Kong Widget on Widgetbox.

The 1981 arcade classic came to life in this free widget game. You could play as the ever-energized Mario jumping over barrels to save the princess from the mean old giant monkey.

Bubbles

Bubbles Widget
Image of Bubbles widget on Widgetbox.

Much like the other bubble and marble games out there, the Bubbles game widget was very addicting and could quickly swallow up an hour or two of your time. In order to connect same-colored bubbles together, you had to fire bubbles from down below. This took a little bit of aim, so you had to pay careful attention to where you were pointing your bubble.

Super Mario Game

Super Mario Game Widget
Image of the Super Mario Widget on Widgetbox.

This classic Nintendo game would have received a higher rank if it weren't for the annoying advertisements that took up half the widget. Still, it was a fun game and any lover of the Mario games could have probably found it easy to ignore the advertisements at least for a little while.

Mini-Putt Golf Game

Free Widget Game
Image of Mini-Putt Golf Widget on Widgipedia.

This was a neat widget game that took you through a miniature putt-putt golf course with the same type of wacky holes. The only thing missing from this free widget was a place to get a couple of hotdogs.

Asteroids

Asteroids Widget Game
Image of Asteroids widget on Widgetbox.

It's hard to imagine a time when Asteroids was cutting edge graphics, but a few well placed lines made for a great game back in the day. And the gameplay still held up after all those years since the Asteroids widget was just as addicting as the rest of the free widget games on this list.

Ultimate Flash Sonic

Sonic Widget Game
Image of Ultimate Flash Sonic on Widgipedia.

A fun game, this free widget could be a little small on the screen, but it offered a full screen mode to make things easier. You could play as Sonic or another character as you played through a side-scrolling adventure.

PacMan

Pacman Arcade Widget
Image of PacMan Widget on SpringWidgets.

How many pellets could you gobble up before the spirit world caught up with you? This free widget version of the arcade classic delivered the same great gameplay as the original. It was even more fun playing while humming a few bars of the Ghost Busters theme.

iPhone Minesweeper

iPhone Minesweeper
Image of iPhone Minesweeper on Widgipedia.

Despite the name, this free widget game actually worked fine on a PC and even worked great on the Skyfire mobile web browser. Similar to the version of Minesweeper that came with Windows, players could try to clear a minefield by choosing blocks that didn't contain mines and marking blocks that do.

Save the Ants

Save the Ants
Image of Save the Ants on Widgipedia.

This fun little widget game turned the tide on exterminators everywhere by allowing you to protect ants from raining fireballs by creating a protective bubble around them. You had to be careful of which ants you tried to protect. If a fireball hit your cursor, the game was over.

Article updated by: Elise Moreau

Was this page helpful?